The Things We Never Say - Elizabeth Strout

 We had a lovely time at Fiona's, thank you so much for hosting! What a great group and welcome back to Pat Campbell. Pat was a member of our group for a few years about 10 years ago. Welcome back!

It was interesting to hear the feedback on Elizabeth Strout's latest book based on who read the book versus listened to the audio book. Something about the voice of the narrator mitigated some of the less positive reactions people had to the main character. Perhaps there was more sympathy in the voice than one heard in one's own head. In any event, it was a reminder of just how different the experience of a book can be depending on how you experienced it. 

As for the story, some found it depressing, some found it hopeful, some questioned whether Artie could really be as reflective as he seemed. As Sally pointed out, he is a man. Unlikely at best that he would do all kinds of soul searching. Still, the situation called for reflection - his son's accident resulting in a person's death, learning about his wife's long deception, his own ennui about his career. Lots to think about, maybe a bit much to put on one person in one book. And some of the other characters did not necessarily ring true. Would a shopkeeper really be so kind to a shoplifter? 

Still, Elizabeth Strout can write like a dream, and she created a new and interesting set of characters and place in this novel. While I may not run to read her next book, this one was pretty satisfying overall. 

There was a good bit of interest in the Heywood Hill subscription I mentioned, celebrating the 90 years of this London bookstore's existence. The crack bookseller staff selected one book to represent each decade of the shop's existence from those published in the British Isles. I have just loved the selections, some of which were rereads, some of which were new books and authors to me. Since I have more or less read them in order, it was also a wonderful way to experience shift in the culture of the British Isles over time. I am still talking about how great Jamaica Inn was. Here is the list:

	Title	Author	Year Published
February	Jamaica Inn	Daphne De Maurier	1936
March	Goodbye to Berlin	Christopher Isherwood	1939
May	Lucky Jim	Kingsley Amis	1954
April	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	Muriel Spark	1961
June	In a Free State	V.S.Naipal	1971
July	An Ice-Cream War	William Boyd	1982
August	Regeneration	Pat Barker	1991
September	The Secret Scripture	Sebastian Barry	2008
October	The Garden of Evening Mists	Tan Twan Eng	2012
November	Checkout #9	Claire-Louise Bennett	2021

Our next meeting is November 16 at 6:30 at Karin Walker's house - she is playing hooky from her other book club to host us. The book is Whistler, Ann Patchett's most recent. I am going to pester her to zoom in, we'll see how persuasive I am. December is our annual book swap, so no book, but January will be Min Jin Lee's new book,  American Hagwon. 

See you all on November 16!